Another picture perfect spring day. Father Sky sketched his deep blue sky with lots of white clouds. The bright sun warmed up the landscape, waking all the birds to sing their love songs. I think I heard them singing the chorus to His Eye is on the Sparrow — “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, for His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.” My yard was full of songbirds all day, happily flittering from one feeder to the next. I saw downy woodpeckers, cardinals, titmice, chickadees, a towhee, two wrens, purple finches, one red-breasted grosbeak, doves, two blue jays and heard an owl’s noisy conversation at dusk. Penelope whined to come in the house when the hoot owls started hooting. She thinks they can swoop down and pick up her fifteen pound self.

I was faithful to Mother Nature this evening, sitting in the swing after supper waiting for the pageant of sunset to be painted on a deep blue sky canvas. I saw the sun dressed in a formal strapless gown of yellow sequined sunshine, long white gloves on her slender arms, stepping on the stage proudly, her hand on the arm of the handsome Father Sky. As Father Sky walked the sun down the horizon, a blaze of watermelon red flooded across the skyline and melted into the aqua and pale huckleberry of the high clouds. The sun dropped off the horizon as the dark blue colors of twilight raced across the neighborhood.

Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and stepped from the twilight into the inky dark of the nighttime sky. The Man in the Moon came out early tonight, his luminous self half-dressed, waiting to gaze down on the day’s dusky shadows of the coming night. Father Sky pulled the stars from their cozy clouds covers and placed them on the stage of darkness to illuminate the world’s dreams. The moon was a glorious beacon of light in the black abyss of the sky, the stars a tapestry of twinkling diamonds. Night has awakened gloriously as the day goes to sleep sublimely. I love to sit it the swing and watch the day wind down. The beauty of the setting sun, the magical quietness that hovers over the landscape

The wind was a frequent visitor today, pinging the wind chimes making the yellow petunias dance, ruffling the cardinals’ crests. I remembered a quote from Jimmy Dean about the wind,“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” I think I’ve used this quote before. I love the imagery.

When we live a Christian life our destination to the pearly gates of heaven is a lifetime commitment. We sail through life on our prayers and thanksgiving and when the storm winds of temptation blow, we’re blown of our Christian path. We can’t change the direction the wind is blowing but we can change our mindset. Through our prayers and God’s grace we trim our sails, adjust our course, and get back on our journey with God to his kingdom of heaven.

I love this Sailor’s prayer — “May the seas lie smooth before you. May a gentle breeze forever fill your sails. May sunshine warm your face, and kindness warm your soul.” The seas of our lives are not always smooth and calm. We encounter storm winds, heavy rain, lightning and thunder. Our journeys are filled with broken hearts, changes and challenges, all things we experience that make us human. How we react to these rough currents as we sail through life determines the rest of our life’s journey. As we learn how to sail our ship, we’ll overcome the rough waters and experience joy as we learn to navigate life through our faith in God. Psalm 107:29 states, “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” We will always reach our destination if we left God be the skipper of our sailboats. God will always calm the storms.

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.